Wildefire

Karsten Knight

Synopsis:

Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

What the critics are saying:

Karsten Knight’s Wildefire is a perfectly paced, action-packed thrill-ride that I couldn’t put down. Let me point out that while the teens in the book all have powers because they are reincarnated gods and goddesses, I couldn’t help but be reminded a little of the X-Men (which is in no way a bad thing). I love me some super heroes, especially a group of super heroes banding together in all kinds of kick assedness.  (Book Twirps)

The relationship between Eve and Ash is a defining one for Wildefire, and the love/hate depiction is handled beautifully by Mr. Knight. They are gods, after all, and like any good family of deities, they are completely dysfunctional.  (The Book Smugglers)

I can wholeheartedly say that Wildefire was refreshing, fun and completely addicting. Author Karsten Knight has written one heck of a debut with a full-force plot that grips you from the start and refuses to let go even in the final pages of the book.  (I Swim For Oceans)

Fantastic new debut author to keep your eye on. If you love mythology and feisty lead female character this is just the book for you.  (My World of Books)

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Book of the Week 7/26

Here is the YA book you should be paying attention to, due in bookstores today!

Supernaturally (Kiersten White) - Kiersten White is one of the most exciting new voices in YA fiction, and her latest title lives up to the ridiculous expectations that Paranormalcy paved way for.  This is a must-read.

Other Noteworthy Releases

Wolfsbane (A Nightshade Novel) (Andrea Cremer)

Wildefire (Karsten Knight)
Voice of the Undead (Alex Van Helsing Series) (Jason Henderson)
Touch of Frost (Jennifer Estep)
The Seeker (Isobelle Carmody)
Love and Other Things I'm Bad At (Catherine Clark)
Putting Makeup On the Fat Boy (Bil Wright)

The Babysitter Murders (Janet Ruth Young)

Supernaturally

Kiersten White

The synopsis, from the publisher:

"Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be... kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself."

Kiersten White's follow-up to Paranormalcy is much more introspective than the first, as Evie tries to figure out just where she belongs, and who (and better yet what), she is.  I do miss a lot of elements from that first book that were missing from the sequel, like Lish, but we do get a taste of a lot of what made that first book so good, like Tasey and the IPCA, just less of it, as Evie makes room for other things in her life.  Evie seems very lost throughout much of this title, which isn't always very fun to read, but White brings her trademark humor to her lovable character, and with a strong supporting cast, makes this book nearly as fun as her debut.  It's cool to see White further explore the world that Evie lives in, and find herself in a world where she doesn't feel she belongs.  And there are plenty of cool monsters in there, as well as plenty of action.  For awhile, it seems like events are sort of random, but it all kind of falls into place by the end when what's really been going on is revealed.  White also doesn't just ignore what has come before when it comes to the whole saga of Vivian and the Empty Ones, but really follows through in this title with consequences.  All-in-all, Supernaturally is a very solid follow-up to Paranormalcy.

Book of the Week 7/19

Here is the book you should be paying attention to, due in bookstores tomorrow!

The Girl Is Murder (Kathryn Miller Haines) - Kind of like a Veronica Mars story, this book is about a fifteeen-year-old girl who helps out her father (whether he wants her help or not), who owns a detective agency.

Other Noteworthy Releases

The Final Hour (Homelanders #4) (Thomas Nelson)
Ripple (Mandy Hubbard)
Clean (Amy Reed)
Mayhem (Artist Arthur)
Pearl (Johanna Knowles)
Return To Deamon Hall: Evil Roots (Andrew Nance)
Small Town Sinners (Melissa Walker)

Book of the Week 7/12

Here is the YA book you should be paying attention to, due in stores tomorrow!

Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) (Maggie Steiefvater) - The latest book in The Wolves of Mercy Falls werewolf series has finally arrived.

Other Noteworthy Selections

Starstruck (Cyn Balog)

Dragon's Oath (P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast)
The Hidden Coronet (Relic Master #3) (Catherine Fisher)
Undercurrent (A Siren Novel) (Tricia Rayburn)
Siren's Storm (Lisa Papademetriou)
Sometimes It Happens (Lauren Barnholdt)
Sass & Serendipity (Jennifer Ziegler)
Wildcat Fireflies (A Meridian Novel) (Amber Kizer)
Dreams of Significant Girls (Cristina Garcia)
The Summer I Learned To Fly (Dana Reinhardt)
Bad Taste In Boys (Carrie Harris)
The Other Countess (Eve Edwards)
Sister Mischief (Laura Goode)

Fury

Elizabeth Miles

Okay, I really got sucked in by that amazing cover.  It's absolutely beautiful.  Unfortunately, the rest of the work isn't as awe-inducing.

Fury is the first book in a trilogy that sees three beautiful girls come into a sleepy town in Maine and wreak havoc on its naughtier inhabitants.  The story is told through the eyes of two students from the local high school, Em and Chase, with alternating chapters.  Em is in the middle of a love triangle involving her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend.  She's tortured by her role, but not enough to deter her from carrying on with the affair until she finds out what a real piece of work the love of her life is.  Chase, on the other hand, is a super athlete at the school who's very self-conscious about how poor his family is.  He wants to be the popular guy, yet is very calculating on how he hides this aspect of his life that he's embarrassed of.  For the most part, these two characters are really well-developed.  We get their motives, and get a detailed glimpse into their daily lives.  However, they're kind of loathsome characters that I wasn't very happy to spend my time with.  And they're kind of dumb when it comes to what's going on around them, gullible and dense to the situations they find themselves in.  Some of the secondary characters are well-established as well, but some, like Em's best friend's boyfriend, is completely two-dimensional, made up to just be a villain.

The story moves along at a nice clip, with eerie hints of the supernatural pulling readers along, but it's nothing that we haven't really seen before, and like I said before, our tour guides are two reprehensible characters.  We've seen greek mythology blended into a modern-day setting much better than is done here.  While it is well-written, I can only hope that Miles provides some better characters to populate her books in the future.

Fury will be in stores 8/30/11.

Book of the week 7/5

Here is the YA book you should be paying attention to, due in bookstores on Tuesday...

The Tomb (Dave Ferraro) - I wouldn't be much of an author if I didn't say that people should buy my book, so this week's pick of the week is my new book, a stand-alone prequel to the Hunters of the Dark series.  It's a YA horror novel, available as an e-book through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Here's the synopsis:

18-year-old Rachel Thyme has been handed the opportunity of a lifetime when she joins an archaeological dig off the coast of Australia. Eager to have some experience under her belt, she doesn’t question the rumors the locals tell of the previous archaeology crews and the haunting disappearances. She ignores the first signs that something is wrong when her crewmates begin to do strange things, that propel them deeper into the bowels of Black Forest Island. But she can hardly write off discovery after discovery that lead her to confront a long-hidden tomb and puts into question what she thinks she knows about the supernatural.

Rachel wants nothing more than to prove herself on this excursion, especially as it was her daddy’s money that helped her land this job, and as she makes friends, and even sees a little romance, she discovers horrors she can hardly imagine, from evil slowly awakening around her, to the hidden demons locked in her past.

Other Noteworthy Releases

Twisted (A Pretty Little Liars novel) (Sara Shepard)
Original Sin (A Personal Demons novel) (Lisa Desrochers)
Sweep (Volume 4): Seeker, Origins, Eclipse (Cate Tiernan)
Stealing Bases (A Pretty Tough novel) (Keri Mikulski)
Blindsided (Priscilla Cummings)
Lost Voices (Sarah Porter)
Glee: Summer Break (Sophia Lowell)
Paradise (Jill S. Alexander)
The Siren's Cry (Jennifer Anne Kogler)
Sirensong (Jenna Black)
Falling For Hamlet (Michelle Ray)
White Crow (Marcus Sedgwick)
A Scary Scene In a Scary Movie (Matt Blackstone)
The Serpent's Coil (Christy Raedeke)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Ransom Riggs

Synopsis:

As a kid, Jacob formed a special bond with his grandfather over his bizarre tales and photos of levitating girls and invisible boys. Now at 16, he is reeling from the old man's unexpected death. Then Jacob is given a mysterious letter that propels him on a journey to the remote Welsh island where his grandfather grew up. There, he finds the children from the photographs--alive and well--despite the islanders’ assertion that all were killed decades ago. As Jacob begins to unravel more about his grandfather’s childhood, he suspects he is being trailed by a monster only he can see. A haunting and out-of-the-ordinary read, debut author Ransom Rigg’s first-person narration is convincing and absorbing, and every detail he draws our eye to is deftly woven into an unforgettable whole. Interspersed with photos throughout, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a truly atmospheric novel with plot twists, turns, and surprises that will delight readers of any age.

What the critics are saying:

I could talk at great length about the delicious strangeness of the book--its odd combination of horror and enchantment, and its mesmerizing, creepy, beautiful, haunting, disturbing photographs....it's not a cozy comfort read. But boy, once things get going, it is a zinger! (Charlotte's Library)

With its X-Men: First Class-meets-time-travel story line, David Lynchian imagery, and rich, eerie detail, it's no wonder Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children has been snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox. (Entertainment Weekly)

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is at times a classic adventure story and at other times…its originality is mind blowing. It will appeal to both teen boys and teen girls as well as their moms and dads. (The Well-Read Wife)

There are twists and turns a-plenty, some predictable and some extra twisty.  Best of all, the characters are well-drawn and the interaction between Jacob and the other characters is authentic and well played. (Quirky Girls Read)

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